For Kahndaq
by RenaRoo
Summary: Cass travels to Kahndaq during the nation's time of mourning with inspiration and a plan.


mistressgrey-posts: how about 16 (not dead) with billy and cass? pretty please?

A/N: I wasn't really sure what to do with this one so I twisted the meaning a bit so hopefully it still matches what you were hoping for!

Batman, Captain Marvel/Shazam, and associated characters © DC Comics

 **For Kahndaq**

"Her name was Isis. Not really, it was Adrianna. She brought lots of love into the world, but unfortunately sometimes it feels like it left with her, too."

Cassandra felt the sadness in the curve of the woman's frown, the timid way her fingers intwined with the fabric of her clothes. She was brought nearly to tears by the horror of her tone and that was what really stuck with Cassandra in all of that. The sadness and horror were intwined in Kahndaq.

There was another word for that mixture, one that Cass had to search the recesses of her mind to remember exactly, but once she had, she breathed it in with a new understanding. Words did that sometimes, especially one so fitting for the emotions that were mixed together in the people before her.

 _Mourning._

An entire city, an entire country — they were all mourning a single person who had touched them all.

Despite the stiffness of the person guiding her small tour, Cassandra leaned forward and pulled the woman into a gentle embrace, a loving reassurance pouring from her own body into the young woman's. It was almost certain that when Wayne Enterprises hired the translator to guide the daughter of Bruce Wayne around the capital of Kahndaq that she was not anticipating such a receptive and emotional display, but Cassandra didn't care. She was all about giving people the things that they weren't even aware that they needed.

It was the gift of her abilities.

The other gift, of course, being what she did in a change of costumes and heading out into the night cooled rooftops of Kahndaq. The things that she could offer the people not as philanthropic Cassandra Wayne, but as the enigmatic agent of Batman, the Black Bat.

At least, that had been her intention as she crossed the capital city only to be stopped at the ledge of a final building before hitting the lower income neighborhood on the city outskirts where a broad shouldered, confidant man hovered expectantly with his arms crossed against his barrel chest. He was bright in the night sky with his red suit and flowing white-and-gold cape.

"It's a long way from Gotham," the man said boisterously. "Care to tell me why you're here, friend?"

"Haven't met," Black Bat corrected him with a squint of her eyes. "Not friends."

"Yet," he replied before offering a hand. "They call me Captain Marvel. I'm a friend of Batman."

She tilted her head at that. "Hard to… _believe_ ," she replied in turn.

That got a laugh from the towering hero and he shifted his hands to his hips. "I know. But if you're wearing that symbol with his graces, I think you know he can be quite the softie underneath it all."

Despite herself, Black Bat smiled some in turn. It was a truth about Batman that she knew all too well.

"Why're _you_ here?" she asked Captain Marvel.

"Black Adam… Well, he's my responsibility in a way. I take my responsibilities very seriously," he answered. "And I take my responsibilities for my _family_ even more seriously. I hope you don't take this as me being cryptic. It isn't my intention. But sometimes the relation between myself and Teth-Adam is hard to properly express."

"Understand," she nodded sagely. "Still… not here for… _him._ Here for… _her."_

That seemed to catch Captain Marvel off guard and he followed the direction of Black Bat's nod, toward the towering statue always visible at all points of the city. A monument, an epitaph, dedicated to the fallen queen of Kahndaq.

"Isis," he muttered. It did not carry the reverence of the Kahndaqi people, but there was something far more familiar and pained instead. _Mourning_ , but of a more personal level. When he turned back, though, Captain Marvel had a much more serious expression. "What do you mean? How are you here for Isis?"

"She had… power of life," Black Bat explained slowly. "Protected people. Loved them. They… They loved her, too. I don't want… I _won't_ let that die. I want to bring it — that _love_ — back. I won't… let it die, too."

Captain Marvel's brows raised high over his eyes in surprise. "You're… here for the power of Isis?"

"Here for… the _love_ of her," she corrected him. "Do it my way. Protect people. Save them. Make… world better. Starting _here._ "

A fond smile came to the captain's face. "That is the sort of thing I couldn't be prouder to help," he assured her. He then offered Black Bat his hand again. "Let's see what we can do."

"Yes," Black Bat answered, finally accepted the outstretched hand. "Let's."


End file.
